FLOCK HOUSE ESTATE

Shannon News, 30 December 1924, Page 4

FLOCK HOUSE ESTATE

farm operations. Flock-House Station, at Bulls,\ has proved, as anticipated, most smtaole for the purpose of training overseas boys in the initial stages of farm and station work, as it comprises all classes oMand and enables every description of farm work to be undertaken (states the annual report of the Slieepowners Acknowledgment of Debt to British Seamen fund). 4The fine ferro-concrete homestead has required no structural alterations and provides ample dormitory accommodation for fifty boys and the staff, with dining accommodation for over one hundred. Since possession was taken, the following outside buildings have been erected: Lavatories, bath and dressing rooms and septic tank, gardener s cottage up-to-date milking shed with machines, stables and implement sheds and meat-house. During the present year it is proposed to instal additional dormitory accommodation and erect woolshed, slaughterhouse, piggeries and other necessary buildings. A fine flow of artesian water lias been secured. . The property has been fully, stocked with sheep and cattle, the latter comprising a large well-bred herd of Polled Angus cows and heifers, bullocks for fattening, and a dairy her! of grade Jerseys. The sheep are of good Romney type, the breeding ewes and ewe hoggets taken over from Waitatapia being exceptionally good. A good lambing was obtained, and all the stock are in good condition. A start was made in July with the afforestation of the lighter land, 'it acres being planted with pinus rarliata, and a nursery has been established to provide trees for planting iuo acres in each of the two following years. A generous area has ' been devoted to garden and orchard round the, hostel, and, under the competent supervision of the horticulturist, promises excellent results.

All. the boys settled down to work on arrival with enthusiasm and determination to make good, and many have become; quite useful farm assistants. They are allotted weekly, by the manager, in drafts to the differ- 1 ent jobs of dairying, fencing, shepherding, ploughing, gardening and orchard, carpentering, scrub-cut-ting, etc., and work under and with the foreman of the particular job to which they are allotted. • The trustees have received many applications from farmers who wish to obtain the services of the boys as farm assistants when they are fitted for employment. Preference is given as employers to subscribers to the fund, and the utmost care is taken to place .the boys suitably. Up to date of this report 19 boys have been placed in satisfactory positions, with good homes, and at current rates of wages on three years’ agreement, eight of these being placed in,the Wellingtoniuanawatu district. ' . .It is very necessary that the work which is being done for the assistance of the orphaned boys should be extended' to their sisters, and the trustees are closely methods by which this can be done. In many cases widowed mothers and sisters of boys under training e.t ‘Flock House wish to come out to NeW Zealand, and the trustees hope with- ' in reasonable time to inaugurate a satisfactory scheme by which this can bo accomplished.